A few weeks ago, I had opportunity to briefly revisit New York City (with my daughter and son-in-law) after having moved upstate a year and a half ago. The goal was to revisit certain places that still held nostalgic meaning to me -- especially, Central Park.
While the car trips to and back were scenic and lovely and visits to old neighborhood places were warm and unchanged, I can't say the same for Central Park where the obvious changes were as far from warm and tender as bone-chilling blizzard is from a spring day.
In short, the trip back to New York City essentially destroyed any and all sense of nostalgia I may have held. It was, in a word, depressing -- especially the visit to Central Park.
My daughter and I were taken aback and shocked when venturing into Harlem Meer.
Beautiful memories of a lake once thriving with mallards, geese and even a couple of swans was replaced with the stark and harsh reality of a completely waterbird-empty lake. Despite my daughter and I walking around the entire lake, we were only able to find (and count) eight mallards and one lonely Canada goose -- all resting quietly under a tree near the Dana Center.
We suspect the one (human friendly) goose is "Squally" who had to be rescued from the Meer last winter when she was suffering from emaciation and lead. Apparently, after recovery at the Wild Bird Fund, Squally was released back to an empty lake with no other geese.
From Harlem Meer, my daughter and I went to the Central Park Reservoir where we fed the seven surviving goslings and their families. The only reason these goslings are still alive after their food sources were deliberately destroyed at the Reservoir in early July, is the commitment and organized effort of a number of people to feed them on a daily basis.
Though their growth rate was slow compared to goslings of similar age in other locations, the Central Park goslings appear to finally be doing better now as new vegetation is growing.
As there were no other goslings in Central Park this year or last, it was particularly important to save these seven as they represent the possible future for any Central Park resident geese at all. The babies are by no means "out of the woods" yet, but the future appears a bit more hopeful for the Reservoir seven than it did a few weeks ago.
But if we can feel a glimmer of hope for the few remaining geese in Central Park, it has otherwise been a brutal, terrible summer for Canada Geese across the country.
2,200 geese were rounded up from Denver, Colorado parks and sent for gassing. Similar killings occurred in New Jersey, New York City, Alabama, Delaware and other locations around the nation.
Though the dreaded molt season has finally ended and geese are in the air again, there is truly no urban place in the country geese can be considered "safe" and not in the crosshairs of human wrath.
The first time when leaving New York City, there was an unspoken wish of wanting to return to it one day. But this time when leaving, there was no such wish; on the contrary, I could not wait to get back to Cortland where "my" park geese are neither harassed nor "culled" nor their eggs destroyed.
But then, my local park isn't striving to be an outdoor version of Madison Square Garden -- as too many urban parks appear to be doing these days.
Rather than places of "peaceful retreat to connect reflectively with nature," more and more urban parks are transforming themselves into places of endless human activities, as well as entertainment and sports venues.
But such is incompatible with nature and especially any urban wildlife and birds.
Present and future generations will have to decide if they want urban parks to be places of "peaceful retreat to connect with nature" (which was the original intent and purpose of Central Park) or tourist attractions and entertainment venues complete with amusement rides, fireworks, concerts, movies, sporting competitions and shows.
You can't have both.
The battle for nature and wildlife is virtually lost in New York City Parks where even sight of common mallards can now be counted on one hand.
The question is, has the New York City "model" now spread to urban parks around the country?
Judging from this summer's goose kill numbers in nationwide urban parks, that appears to be so.
Out with nature and wildlife. In with the concerts, movies, weekly marathons, and fireworks.
No better way to "connect with nature" than to wage war on it apparently.
And yet so few seem to realize or even notice.
